”I just don’t have time, I’m too busy!” How many times do we hear that in our day?
My site is dedicated to helping people build “right relationships” with those they choose to share their lives with. When we choose to engage with others, whether they be human or otherwise, we must ensure that we make the time to give them what they need and deserve.
It seems these days people are too “busy” to pay attention to all the little things that make a day a little brighter, the smile from a stranger, acknowledging the person who let you into a stream of traffic, or just saying “good morning” to a passing pedestrian in your neighbourhood. I don’t ever want to get so busy that I lose the ability stop appreciating all the little things that make me pause for a moment and smile.
Whenever I find myself feeling overwhelmed by time constraints, I ask myself these questions… how important is what I am doing in regards to my overall sense of well-being? Is this a need or a want? Who am I doing this for? If the answers to these questions feel difficult, I pause, take three nice deep breath’s and ask them again. It’s interesting to see how the answers change after a good long pause. Often, we get so wrapped up in what we are trying to achieve, we lose sight of the “big picture.”
Our autonomic nervous system responds to the thoughts we hold in our minds. If we are feeling harried, harassed and out of control, our system will keep us in our sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) and dump cortisol, adrenaline and a host of cortical steroids to keep us moving away from perceived danger, that is what overwhelm (too busy) equates to in our brains. On the others hand, if we are thinking we have all the time in the world to get the task at hand done and isn’t it great to being doing this task, our brain perceives this as comfortable and we stay in the parasympathetic system, which is a much more beneficial place for our bodies and our minds. We have all heard how bad “chronic stress” is for our health, so if we can learn practices that allow us to get ourselves out of “fight or flight” and back into “rest and repair” our bodies and minds will thank us for it in the long run.
So if you find that “busyness” is creating unwanted stress in your life and you cannot see a light at the end of the tunnel… Just remember that being “busy” is a choice and not a trophy or a lament. You are the choices you make in life, you live with them every moment and so do those around you. I don’t think anyone gets to the end of their days and says “geeze, I with I had been busier” I know I certainly won’t.